High faradaic efficiency reduction of N₂ to NH₃ is achieved in ionic liquid media under ambient conditions.

Density functional theory investigations of M₃C₂ transition metal carbides from the d², d³, and d⁴ series suggest promising N₂ capture behaviour, displaying spontaneous chemisorption energies that are larger than those for the capture of CO₂ and H₂O in d³ and d⁴ MXenes. The chemisorbed N₂ becomes activated, promoting its catalytic conversion into NH₃. The first proton–electron transfer is found to be the rate-determining step for the whole process, with an activation barrier of only 0.64 eV vs. SHE for V₃C₂.

Renewable energy-driven ammonia electrosynthesis by N₂ reduction reaction (NRR) at ambient conditions is vital for sustainability of both the global population and energy demand. However, NRR under ambient conditions to date has been plagued with a low yield rate and selectivity (<10%) due to the more favorable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in aqueous media. Herein, surface area enhanced α-Fe nanorods grown on carbon fiber paper were used as NRR cathodes in an aprotic fluorinated solvent–ionic liquid mixture. Through this design, significantly enhanced NRR activity with an NH₃ yield rate of ∼2.35 × 10^–11 mol s^–1 cm_GSA^–2, (3.71 × 10^–13 mol s^–1 cm_ECSA^–2) and selectivity of ∼32% has been achieved under ambient conditions. This study reveals that the use of hydrophobic fluorinated aprotic electrolyte effectively limits the availability of protons and thus suppresses the competing HER. Therefore, electrode–electrolyte engineering is essential in advancing the NH₃ electrosynthesis technology.